Keep It Real

It’s a few months ago now so you’ve probably all seen the Facebook exchange between a young woman and her boss.

In it, she complained about her ‘pervy’ boss and the general tedium of her role.

He then surprised her by responding to point out that, since she’d ‘added’ him as a friend, he’d seen her comments and she would no longer be working for the company.

What really stands out for me about this story is people’s reaction.

Everyone who sees it laughs.

Then they question if it is real.

We spend so much time in a virtual world and consuming fictional media disguised as ‘reality’, it’s no wonder we’re all striving for proof that our experiences are authentic.

Authenticity isn’t as straightforward as it used to be, because our viewpoint is always subjective.

Seven people can see the same play or attend the same meeting, and yet each version of events will differ when it’s retold.

As Mel Brooks once famously pointed out, “Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die.”

History is controlled by whoever writes it down.

So it’s not the authenticity that matters, so much as creating a memorable experience that’s worth sharing with people

People, Who Need People...

One of my colleagues here at Jack Morton, Gareth, attended a retirement party recently for a client of his former agency, and was happy to see all his “old” clients.
During the course of the evening Gareth was surprised to learn that he was still the subject of many a conversation, despite two and a half years having elapsed since they last spoke.
This is a real demonstration of one of perhaps the best known of all sales truisms.
People buy people first.
Yes clients buy our work, our creativity or our bespoke costing and control systems.
But they buy us.
The people in the room, the chats over coffee and reassuring voice at the end of the phone line.
It’s great when a client connects with you through Linked-In, and Facebook , but it’s a hundred times more valuable to know them in the real world..